r18novel Chapter 57 Stone Bridge
Chapter 57 Stone Bridge
It's been a month since the battle ended.
Lu Siye's treatment has improved a lot.
No, there are a lot.
The royal family allocated him a house in the western suburbs of the central capital.
The house was staffed with a butler, two maids, a cook, and a gardener who was in charge of tending the garden.
The butler's surname is Chen, and he was specially recruited from the Eastern Continent. He is over fifty years old.
When he first met Lu Siye, he bowed at a ninety-degree angle and said, "Young Master Lu, please feel free to tell me what you need."
Lu Siye said, "You don't need to call me young master, just call me by my name."
Butler Chen looked up at him, his expression unchanged, and said, "Yes, Young Master Lu."
Liara later told him that he was now considered a minor nobleman.
Honorary nobles who have made significant contributions to the royal family and are therefore granted noble status.
They had no fiefdoms or real power, but they possessed the title of noble and corresponding privileges.
This house, these servants, and the substantial monthly allowance they receive from the royal family.
"Don't you like it?" Liara asked.
She sat on a stone bench under the old locust tree, holding a fan in her hand, fanning herself idly.
"I don't like it," Lu Siye said.
He stood by the pond, looking at the koi carp, expressionless.
Why?
"It feels too restrictive."
Liara smiled but didn't reply.
She knew he wasn't talking about the house; he was talking about the identity itself.
noble.
This identity means rules, etiquette, and all those things that he doesn't care about but others do, he needs to abide by.
He doesn't care, but he has to care because he's in that position.
Butler Chen has already taught him table manners three times.
Lu Siye learned very quickly, but the faster he learned, the more satisfied Butler Chen became, and the more satisfied he became, the more he wanted to teach him more and more.
It's like a bottomless pit; you can never fill it up.
The only person he could talk to was Liara.
She comes almost every day.
Sometimes they come in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon, and sometimes in the evening.
They don't do anything when they arrive; they just sit in the courtyard, drink tea, chat, or say nothing and just sit there.
At first, Butler Chen would give notices, but he stopped because Liara was coming too frequently.
The frequency of reporting this matter has turned it into a waste of time.
Xiaoman and Baozi are still waiting for him in Fusang.
Every night when Lu Siye lay in bed, he would think of them.
He didn't know what reason to give for leaving.
Charada did not explicitly forbid him from leaving.
The Winged Fire Serpent has been subdued.
His mission is complete, his usefulness is over, and theoretically he can go anywhere and do anything.
But Charada didn't say "You can go now," she just said "Get some rest."
This sentence can be interpreted as "You are free" or "You cannot leave yet".
The difference lies in the tone.
Liara didn't say anything either.
She comes every day, sits every day, chats every day, and leaves every day.
Lu Siye felt that she was waiting.
Wait for him to say something, or wait for him to do something.
He didn't know whether he should speak or do anything.
……
……
During the month of recovery, they often went to the bridge to chat.
The bridge is to the east of the house, about a ten-minute walk away.
It is a stone bridge, very old, and not long, only about twenty meters.
Under the bridge flows an even smaller, narrower river.
They often go to the bridge to watch the sunset in the evening.
She said it felt very comfortable, like she was wearing a face mask.
"You received the mark of sin when you were nineteen?" he asked.
Liara opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him.
"Nineteen years old," she said, "over in the snowy north, not here."
Lu Siye remained silent, waiting for her to continue.
"You know the Snow Country, right? It's the place where it snows for half the year."
"I was born there, I grew up there, and I made mistakes there..." She paused, "...."
"What's wrong?"
Liara smiled.
"adultery."
"It doesn't matter who the other person is, they're definitely not a good person."
"But my father is an earl, and it wouldn't sound good if word got out, so they dealt with it."
"They sent me away, to this godforsaken place, to marry an old man I've never even met."
"They call it a marriage alliance, but it's really just kicking people out of their homes and dumping their garbage in someone else's yard."
Lu Siye remained silent for a moment.
"And then?"
"The old man died later," Leah shrugged. "I didn't kill him; he really died of old age."
"He was forty years older than me and his health was already poor. He was probably too happy after marrying me, and his heart couldn't take it. He passed away on our wedding night."
"The royal family thinks I'm unlucky and bring bad luck to my husbands, so they don't like me."
"I have no relatives or friends here, I can't speak the language, and I can't even get a meal."
She turned around, leaned against the bridge railing, placed her hands on the stone slabs, and looked up at the sky.
"Later I started doing business. Not the legitimate kind, but the gray area, the brothels, you know."
"I started from a small shop and gradually grew it to the size it is today."
"The royal family initially looked down on me, but later they realized I was useful and started trying to win me over."
"Chaladah was the first person to reach out to me, so I worked for her, risked my life for her, acted as her informant, and did all the things she couldn't do herself."
She lowered her head and looked at Lu Siye.
"I'm twenty-seven," she said, "seven years older than you."
"I know," Lu Siye said.
"Do you know what it means to be seven years older?" Leah tilted her head and smiled. "When you were still playing in the mud, I was already putting on makeup. I could already walk when you were born."
"A generation gap, a huge generation gap."
"You don't look twenty-seven," Lu Siye said.
Liara paused for a moment, then laughed.
Are you complimenting me on how young I look?
"I am stating the facts."
"Glib-tongued."
She did not refute it.
Because she certainly doesn't look twenty-seven.
Her skin was wrinkle-free, her body was in perfect shape, firm where it should be firm, perky where it should be perky, and slender where it should be slender.
Like a perfect, flawless work of art meticulously sculpted by God.
Lu Siye knew what she was thinking.
She probably thought that her body was perfect, or at least looked perfect.
Any man who sees her body will be aroused, will want her, and will be unable to control himself.
But she also knew that none of those men wanted a second time after they actually got what they wanted.
It wasn't because her body wasn't good enough, but because of the feeling after we had sex.
That feeling of having your life force drained away is worse than death.
She has managed to limit the frequency to ten times a day.
This is an improvement.
A month ago, she lost control and would kill people.
She can control it now, at least no one will die.
Ten times may sound like a lot, but for her, it was a level of restraint that required a great deal of effort to maintain.
She is trying.
Lu Siye knew she was trying.
She was trying to control the side effects of the sin mark, to reduce her dependence on sex, and to make herself more like a normal person.
She was still a little scared.
She was afraid he would dislike her.
"I have something to tell you," Liara suddenly said.
Her tone changed.
Lu Siye looked at her.
"I can't have children," she said. "Because of the mark of sin, I never will."
She paused, as if waiting for his reaction.
Lu Siye didn't speak, he just looked at her.
"so……"
She took a deep breath, then exhaled, and a smile appeared on her lips, a smile tinged with bitterness.
"You can go find a girl who hasn't done 'that' before, and sleep with her first."
"I don't mind."
Lu Siye pursed his lips.
Foreign countries are very open.
The concept of chastity is of no use to them.
Liara could easily ignore it.
If she doesn't tell, no one will know.
If she doesn't say anything, no one will blame her.
Even if she doesn't say it, she remains that incredibly wealthy woman, who walks the line between the legitimate and criminal worlds, and whose beauty captivates all men—a truly perfect woman.
But she did say it.
She showed him these scars not to gain his sympathy, not to make him feel sorry for her, but because she felt he should know.
Because she respected him, she was unwilling to hide anything from him.
Because she cares about him, she doesn't want him to regret it in the future.
She is indeed a very good person.
Lu Siye has no right to look down on her.
What qualifications does he have?
A twenty-year-old college student who hasn't even graduated from university; a useless college student.
Her status was top-tier, and she was incredibly wealthy, able to get whatever she wanted.
She could have easily forced him to stay and taken his body.
She's already ruined quite a few innocent boys, so one more or one less won't make a difference.
In addition, he really had no status. His status as the only useless college student was completely insignificant. In this country and in this world, he was not even a speck of dust.
But she didn't.
She comes every day, sits every day, chats every day, and leaves every day.
Never overstepping boundaries, never forcing, never demanding.
She simply stood there, like the water in the river, flowing slowly, quietly, and silently.
Lu Siye stared at the river and remained silent for a long time.
"Now is not the time for romance," he said.
Liara glanced at him and then smiled.
"I know," she said, "so we're just chatting."
She turned around and faced the setting sun again.
The sun had already set more than halfway down.
"Let's talk about fantasy," Liara said. "Let's talk about what if."
"If we both survive to that time, do you think we'll get married?"
Lu Siye's body stiffened slightly.
He turned his head and looked at Liara.
She was looking at him too, her light brown pupils reflecting the starry sky, like two silver rivers flowing slowly in her eyes.
She smiled.
"We can marry many men here," she said. "You can come and marry me last."
"Of course... it's okay if you don't want it."
Lu Siye didn't say anything, but simply placed his hand on her head and gently patted it.